August 26, 2025 - Galatians 1:15,16 - "When it Pleased God"

Galatians 1:15,16

"But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:"

All of Scripture points us to Christ, for He is the heart of God’s eternal purpose and the only Hope for sinners. Paul declares in Colossians 1:18 that Christ has “the preeminence in all things.” He is the Lamb slain (since) from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8), the One in Whom the Father is well pleased (Matthew 3:17), and the only Name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Every true testimony of salvation begins not with man, but with Christ revealed. And Paul’s own conversion is a living witness of this truth.

Here is the mystery and glory of salvation: it is not of man, nor by man, but entirely of God. Paul had lived his whole life in religion, zealous and disciplined. Yet in all of it, he remained blind to Jesus Christ as the Promised Seed. He persecuted the very church he would later love, and opposed the very Christ he would later proclaim. If salvation rested on man’s will or effort, Paul would never have been converted. But then, he says, “when it pleased God…”

This is the foundation on which every genuine conversion is built. Not when Paul decided, not when he reformed, not when he reasoned out doctrine—but when God, by pure, sovereign grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in him. Notice, Paul does not say simply “to reveal His Son to me,” but “in me.” Christ was now formed in him, the living Savior dwelling in his heart by the Spirit. This was not the result of man’s teaching or persuasion, but the revelation of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:1).

And Who was revealed in him? The very One that Paul had rejected was in fact the Son of God, the Lamb who had satisfied divine justice by His blood, the Righteous One who had fulfilled the law, the Savior Who had from eternity loved His people and came in the flesh to obtain their salvation. Paul now saw that from his mother’s womb he had been set apart by God’s electing grace, chosen not because of works or merit, but because of Christ. And though Christ’s death had already paid Paul’s debt long before he was brought to know Him, the Spirit in time was pleased to make Him known in him as ALL of God's salvation for the redemption, justification, sanctification and glorification of the Father's elected sinners from every tribe, nation and tongue, (Revelation 7:9).

This is the Gospel: salvation is of the LORD, from beginning to end. From eternity past, in the Father’s electing love (Ephesians 1:4–5); in history, through Christ’s finished work on the cross (John 19:30); and in time, by the Spirit’s revelation of Christ in the heart of the elect, redeemed and justified sinner (2 Corinthians 4:6). It is all of grace, all of Christ, all to God the Father's glory.

Paul’s testimony is ours as well where He has been pleased to choose, redeem, and call us. However religious, hardened, or blind, none will ever come until God is pleased to reveal His Son. But when He does, the sinner is turned, the heart is opened, and Christ becomes all. And the evidence is this: the soul no longer glories in self, but in the LORD alone (1 Corinthians 1:31).

Child of God, let us rest our hope here—not in decisions, not in works, not in religion, but in the LORD Jesus Christ by the sovereign grace of God. For just as with Paul, so with us: it is “when it pleased God… to reveal His Son in me.” And when Christ is revealed, He is everything—our Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption, our Life, and our Glory. To Him alone be the praise.